The Matcha Boom: Green Drinks Everywhere

The bright green tea powder has jumped from tea ceremonies to tiramisu, lattes and ice cream. Read about it, learn new cafe words, and tell us about your favourite drink!

1. Read the text

Matcha is a bright green powder made from special green tea leaves. Farmers cover the plants with shade before the harvest, so the leaves become sweet and soft. Then the leaves are dried and ground into a very fine powder.

To prepare a traditional cup, you whisk the powder with hot water until it is smooth and a little creamy. Pure matcha can taste slightly bitter, so cafes often mix it with milk and sugar.

Around 2015, photos of bright green lattes, ice cream and tiramisu became a big trend on social media. Millions of people saw them and wanted to order the same drinks. Today matcha is a popular ingredient in cafes all over the world. But good matcha takes years to produce, so supply is now tight, and some cafes have long queues and summer shortages.

2. Match the words with their meanings

Match each word from the text with its definition.

• powder
• whisk
• bitter
• creamy
• order
• queue
• flavour
• harvest
• trend
• ingredient

• very small dry pieces, like flour
• to mix something quickly with a special tool
• with a strong taste that is not sweet
• soft and smooth, like milk cream
• to ask for food or drink in a cafe
• a line of people who are waiting
• the taste of food or drink
• the time when farmers pick their plants
• something popular that many people follow
• one of the things you use to make a food or drink

3. Check your understanding

Choose the correct answer for each question about the text.

1) What is matcha?

• A type of coffee bean
• A green powder made from tea leaves
• A sweet fruit juice

2) What do farmers do before the harvest?

• They dry the leaves in the sun
• They mix the leaves with sugar
• They cover the plants with shade

3) How do you prepare a traditional cup of matcha?

• You whisk the powder with hot water
• You boil the leaves for an hour
• You freeze the powder with milk

4) Why do cafes often mix matcha with milk and sugar?

• Because matcha has no colour
• Because pure matcha can taste bitter
• Because hot water is expensive

5) Why did matcha become famous around 2015?

• Doctors told everyone to drink it
• It became very cheap
• Photos of green drinks became a trend on social media

6) Why is the supply of matcha tight now?

• Good matcha takes years to produce
• Farmers stopped growing tea
• Cafes close in the summer

4. A visit to a cafe

Complete the story with the words from the box. Use each word once.

Last Saturday I visited a new cafe in my city. There was a long ______ outside, because green drinks are a big ______ this year. Inside, I watched the barista ______ the green ______ with hot water.

I decided to ______ a matcha latte with oat milk. The first taste was a little ______ , but the milk made it soft and ______ . I really loved the fresh ______ .

The barista told me the tea leaves come from the spring ______ in Japan. Now matcha is my favourite ______ in drinks and desserts!

5. Ordering drinks in a cafe

You are in a busy cafe. Choose the best thing to say in each situation.

1) It is your turn at the counter. You are ready to ask for your drink.

• "Give me a green drink now."
• "Can I have a matcha latte, please?"
• "I am a matcha latte."

2) The barista asks, "What size would you like?"

• "Medium, please."
• "Yes, I like it."
• "At three o'clock."

3) You want to take your drink home with you.

• "Stay here, please."
• "I live near here."
• "Takeaway, please."

4) The barista asks, "Anything else?" You do not want anything more.

• "Yes, goodbye."
• "No, thanks. That's all."
• "Anything, please."

6. Make cafe sentences

Put the words in the correct order to make sentences you can use in a cafe.

Sentence 1: Ask for your drink politely.

• Can
• I
• have
• a
• matcha
• latte,
• please?

Sentence 2: Describe the cafe.

• The
• queue
• outside
• the
• cafe
• was
• very
• long.

7. Your favourite drink

Write 50-70 words about your favourite drink. What is it? Where do you usually drink it or order it? Why do you like it? Try to use at least three new words from this lesson.

This lesson is interactive: open this page in a browser to fill in the answers and get them checked automatically. Teachers can copy the lesson and edit every part of it.